like a pilot, guided the beak, having let fall
the hand, and catched hold of the prow of any vessel, drew down the
opposite end of the machine that was on the inside of the walls. And
when the vessel was thus raised erect upon its stem, the machine itself
was held immovable; but, the chain being suddenly loosened from the
beak by the means of pulleys, some of the vessels were thrown upon their
sides, others turned with the bottom upwards; and the greatest part,
as the prows were plunged from a considerable height into the sea, were
filled with water, and all that were on board thrown into tumult and
disorder.

"Marcellus was in no small degree embarrassed," Polybius continues,
"when he found himself encountered in every attempt by such resistance.
He perceived that all his efforts were defeated with loss; and were even
derided by the enemy. But, amidst all the anxiety that he suffered, he
could not help jesting upon the inventions of Archimedes. This man, said
he, employs our ships as buckets to draw water: and boxing about our
sackbuts, as if they were unworthy to be associated with him, drives
them from his company with disgrace. Such was the success of the siege
on the side of the sea."

Subsequently, however, Marcellus took the city by strategy, and
Archimedes was killed, contrary, it is said, to the express orders
of Marcellus. "Syracuse being taken," says Plutarch, "nothing grieved
Marcellus more than the loss of Archimedes. Who, being in his study when
the city was taken, busily seeking out by himself the demonstration
of some geometrical proposition which he had drawn in figure, and so
earnestly occupied therein, as he neither saw nor heard any noise of
enemies that ran up and down the city, and much less knew it was taken:
he wondered when he saw a soldier by him, that bade him go with him to
Marcellus. Notwithstanding, he spake to the soldier, and bade him tarry
until he had done his conclusion, and brought it to demonstration: but
the soldier being angry with his answer, drew out his sword and killed
him. Others say, that the Roman soldier when he came, offered the
sword's point to him, to kill him: and that Archimedes when he saw him,
prayed him to hold his hand a little, that he might not leave the matter
he looked for imperfect, without demonstration. But the soldier making
no reckoning of his speculation, killed him presently. It is reported
a third way also, saying that certain soldiers met him in the